N C East Premier DivSat. 18 Dec 2004

GLASSHOUGHTON WELFARE1

SHEFFIELD CLUB6

ALTHOUGH AN OUT OF SORTS WELFARE WERE ALWAYS SECOND BEST TO A GOOD
SHEFFIELD SIDE THE HOME MENS PLIGHT WAS NOT HELPED BY SOME REALLY ATROCIOUS AND INEXCUSABLE INCOMPETANCE BY THE ASSISTANT
REFEREE, MISSING A WHOLE STREAM OF GLARING OFFSIDE SITUATIONS WHICH CONTRIBUTED TO AT THREE OF THE VISITORS GOALS.

Welfare were rocked by the late withdrawal of the experienced centre
back Paul Mattison and from the start were troubled by the visitors lively James Tevendale who made the most of a square defence,
although his premature runs which time after time put him in a undisputable offside position, were not picked up by the linesman
who clearly did not appear to understand the offside rules.

After Sheffield had gone dangerously close as a result of these errors
they inevitably scored when Robert Ward was able to tap in from a close range position after 8 minutes.Apart from the indirect help of the match assistant Sheffield were clearly the better side but after 26
minutes an overworked home defence was horrified when Tevendale was allowed to continue from an offside position in which
a double deck coach could have been driven through, to cross for Ward to side foot home his second goal.The agony however did not stop there as after Welfare had gained some slight relief ending with Darren
Leech driving a shot wide, the visitors’ Tevendale was once again not flagged when being in a more pronounced offside
position than the previous one, and allowed to go on and easily beat Welfare’s debutant keeper Marc Shackelton.

Welfare were clearly reeling and when Tevendale outpaced the defence
on the flank to cross Ward completed his hat trick from close range, the first goal scored by the visitors that was not shrouded
in controversy.On 43 minutes a beleaguered home defence were powerless to stop
Tevendale scoring Sheffield’s fifth after Stavros Kontou had opened up the defence, to give Sheffield an unassailable
interval lead

From the restart Welfare looked more determined with Leech again
driving over but the home side were dealt a further body blow when the visitors substitute Chris White went clear down the
left flank to beat Shackelton and Marc Newton appeared to have the misfortune to turn in to his own net.Welfare battled away and with Sheffield possibly taking their foot off the gas were more in contention
and on 62 minutes Lee Parker reduced the areas after being put on goal by a clever Jason Bradley through ball.Parker further tested keeper Darren Bonnington before Andy Seed went close and although the visitors Tevendale
missed an open goal Welfare regained some pride by restricting Sheffield any further scoring.